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Mitigating the Fear of the Unknown: Resilience Building Strategies for Public Health Professionals

COVID-19 presents numerous challenges to the public health workforce, including fear, anxiety, potential burnout and stress, and a great deal of uncertainty. These challenges have an impact on an individual’s health and well-being, on our individual relationships, and on our work performance. This session will share strategies to build individual resilience as we continue to respond to COVID-19. Participants will leave the session with practical tools to prepare for the “next normal,” not the “new” normal, by committing to self-care, resilience, and adaptive leadership in the days and months ahead.

Learning objectives:

  • Explain the healthy and unhealthy functions of anxiety, fear, and stress
  • Describe three self-care skills to help address anxiety and uncertainty
  • Apply resilience-building strategies to their professional experience in public health

Duration: 39 minutes

Continuing Education Information: 0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Web-based training, Self Study

Originally Recorded: 08/2020

Presenter: Dr. Michael Fraser, CEO, ASTHO. 

Dr. Fraser is the chief executive officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), the national nonprofit organization representing state and territorial leaders of public health agencies of the United States, the U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, as well as the more than 100,000 public health professionals these agencies employ. ASTHO members, the chief health officials of these jurisdictions, are dedicated to formulating and influencing sound public health policy and to ensuring excellence in state‐based public health practice.Dr.Fraser is a dynamic leader in the health care and public health fields. Prior to joining ASTHO, he served as the executive vice president and CEO of the Pennsylvania Medical. Michael has been a distinguished leader in public health for over twenty years. He served as CEO of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) from 2007 to 2013; he was the deputy executive director of the National Association of County, and City Health Officials from 2002 to 2007and served in several capacities at the US Department of Health and Human Services, including positions at the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Establishing New Norms: Addressing Behavioral Health Needs Post-Pandemic

Mental health issues have greatly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Michelle Cabrera shares experiences, trends, and lessons learned from the California County Behavioral Health Directors Association.

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn how COVID-19 has impacted the delivery of safety net behavioral health services in California
  • Learn how California’s Public Safety Net has adapted to address shifts in the financing, care delivery, and community need post-pandemic
  • Share how the public behavioral health safety net can support the role of public health in addressing the needs of both the workforce and affected communities

Duration: 34 minutes

Continuing Education Information: 0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Web-based training, Self Study

Originally Recorded: 08/2020

Presenter: Michelle D. Cabrera

Michelle Doty Cabrera joined County Behavioral Health Directors Association as Executive Director in May 2019. Ms. Cabrera has a wealth of experience in the state budget and policy as an advocate and staff for the California legislature. Before joining CBHDA, she served as the Healthcare Director for the California State Council of the Services Employees International Union (SEIU California), where she advocated on behalf of healthcare workers and consumers, including SEIU California's county behavioral health workforce. She served as a Senior Consultant for the Assembly Human Services Committee, where she specialized in child welfare issues and staffed legislation, which extended foster care in California to age 21. Ms. Cabrera also served as a Program Officer for the California Healthcare Foundation, working as a liaison on state health policy in Sacramento. Ms. Cabrera serves as a member of the National Quality Forum's Standing Committee on Disparities and the Board of Directors of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network.

Embracing Aloha: Opportunities for Community Engagement and Resilience

In the past six months, our country has struggled with the negative impact of COVID-19, with widespread disruption in access to mental health care, economic stability, and social connectivity. Hawai‘i has led the country in positive public health results but continues to struggle with the economic impact, job loss, and the crisis faced by our small businesses. How do we continue to build community engagement and resilience? This presentation will review the factors specific to our island community that has helped create these positive public health and mental health outcomes. It will examine what factors can be considered in other communities, the elements that have been successfully used during this first wave, and helpful tools to consider implementing.

Learning Objectives:

  • Discuss factors impacting community engagement and resilience, specific to Hawai'i
  • Examine community factors to consider in a public health approach
  • Review elements used to build interconnectedness and resilience during COVID-19
  • Identify helpful tools to consider for your community

Duration: 34 minutes

Continuing Education Information:  0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Recorded Webinar

Originally Recorded: 08/2020

Presenter: Dr. Mestisa Gass, PhD

Mestisa C. Gass is the new Program Director for Mental Health America of Hawai‘i (MHAH). She graduated with a Master’s and Doctorate degree, in Clinical Psychology. Her education and experience has been focused on diverse populations including inpatient acute adolescent care, community mental health, and military mental health. Her training and work has emphasized diversity and trauma-focused care. She is a certified trainer for the MHAH’s Youth Suicide and Bullying Prevention Training for Trainers (T4T) curriculum and Mental Health First Aid for Adults and Youth. She is a member of the Mental Health Task Force, the Statewide and Oahu Suicide Prevention Task Forces, and a board member for the Waipahu Aloha Clubhouse. She has been working in Hawaii since 2006, being originally from a small, farming community in the Appalachian Mountains. She is passionate about bringing education, support, and resources to rural communities, like those in which she spent her childhood.

Sleep and Social Rhythms: Important Health Considerations After Involuntary Job Loss

Dr. Haynes will review early findings from the NIH-funded Assessing Daily Activity Patterns through occupational Transitions (ADAPT) study. Also, she will discuss why the promotion of sleep and consistent daily routine might be especially salient for individuals lacking daily time structure imposed by regular employment.

Learning Objectives:

  • Define social rhythms
  • Apply information about sleep and social rhythms to stressful life events and experiences associated with the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Give examples of behavioral interventions informed by chronobiology

Duration: 34 minutes

Continuing Education Information: 0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Web-based training, Self Study

Originally Recorded: 08/2020

Presenter: Patricia Haynes, PhD

Dr. Haynes is an associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion Sciences at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and behavioral sleep medicine specialist with expertise in cognitive behavioral therapies for PTSD, depression, and insomnia. Her research examining sleep and stress has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the American Sleep Medicine Foundation. She has authored multiple publications in the area of traumatic stress, and she has substantial experience training mental health providers in the areas of sleep and stress recovery. Currently, she has a well-established partnership with the Tucson Fire Department, where she provides services to fire service members and assists in the establishment of behavioral health policies and programs designed to foster firefighter mental health and stress resiliency.

Addressing the Conjoined Crisis of COVID-19 and Homelessness: Towards Racial and Housing Justice

This presentation addresses the persistent crisis of homelessness in U.S. cities and presents recent research from Los Angeles that demonstrates how the economic and social devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic will greatly worsen the crisis of housing insecurity. The crisis of homelessness, as well as that of impending evictions, are disproportionately borne by Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities, making these matters of racial inequality. While public health experts have drawn attention to the dangers of congregate shelters and the need for emergency non-congregate sheltering, what is urgently needed are new visions and models of housing provision. Adopting a Housing First approach, Professor Roy will make a case for how access to housing can be rapidly and significantly expanded, and the principles of racial and housing justice that must undergird such efforts.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand the economic and social impact of COVID-19 on housing insecurity, particularly the disparities faced by Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities.
  • Describe the Housing First approach.
  • Identify strategies to expand access to housing in the context of racial and housing justice.

Target Audience: Public Health Professionals 

Duration: 34 minutes

Continuing Education Information:  0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Web-based training, Self Study

Originally Recorded: 08/2020

Presenter: Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography and The Meyer and Renee Luskin Chair in Inequality and Democracy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Ananya Roy is a Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography and The Meyer and Renee Luskin Chair in Inequality and Democracy at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is the inaugural Director of the UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA, which advances research and scholarship concerned with displacement and dispossession in Los Angeles and elsewhere in the world. Working in alliance with social movements, the Institute seeks to build power and abolish structures of inequality. Ananya’s work has a determined focus on poverty and inequality with special emphasis on housing insecurity and urban displacement. Her most recent book is Encountering Poverty: Thinking and Acting in an Unequal World(University of California Press, 2016), which was accompanied by the #GlobalPOV video series. Currently, she leads a National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network on Housing Justice in Unequal Cities.

Protecting the Health of People Experiencing Homelessness in the COVID Pandemic

Homelessness is a public health crisis fueled by racial inequities and society's policy choices. The conditions under which people experiencing homelessness (PEH) live place them at increased risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus. They are also more likely to develop COVID once exposed, and less likely to receive care and have conditions that will enable them to recover. We will review some of the data on PEH's health status, measures taken by providers to protect the health of PEH during the COVID pandemic, recommendations made by CDC and HUD, and partnerships that were formed among health and shelter service providers in the pandemic. We will also explore some of the limited data about COVID and PEH and public health measures that should be taken to protect the health of PEH and to end homelessness.

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand homelessness in the broader societal framework and the risk factors affecting health status faced by people experiencing homelessness (PEH)
  • Understand some responses to the COVID pandemic by Health Care for the Homeless Programs, Medical Respite programs, local health departments, CDC and HUD
  • Evaluate what short- and long-term steps need to be taken to protect the health of PEH as a means to end homelessness.

Duration: 32 minutes

Continuing Education Information:  0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Web-based training, Self Study

Originally Recorded: 08/2020

Presenter: G. Robert (“Bobby”) Watts, MPH, MS, CPH

Bobby Watts is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, which supports the 300 federally-supportedHealth Care for the Homeless programsand90 Medical Respite providers with training, technical assistance, sharing of best practices, research, publications, and an active policy and advocacy program working to eliminate homelessness. A nationally recognized advocate and leader in meeting the health needs of people without homes, Bobby has 30 years of experience in administration, direct service, and implementation of homeless health services, beginning as a live-in counselor at the NYC Rescue Mission. He spent most of his career before joining the Council at Care for the Homeless, which operates clinics, shelters, and conducts policy analysis and advocacy in NYC, beginning as an intern and serving as the Executive Director for twelve years. He has served on numerous boards and government-appointed task forces and councils. He is a graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia University Mailman School of PublicHealth from which he holds a Master’s in Public Health in health administration and a Master's Science in epidemiology. He also earned a Certificate of Theological Studies from Alliance Theological Seminary in Nyack, NY.

COVID-19 Response and Rolling Recovery: Centering Those Most Impacted & a Social Determinants of Health Informed Response

Public health professionals have warned that the COVID-19 Pandemic and the accompanying financial strains of a recession will require an agile response. COVID-19 response and recovery are occurring simultaneously. This session will apply a racial equity lens to pandemic response and share a model from the San Francisco Bay Area focused on COVID-19 responses focused on the Social Determinants of Health. Some have referred to COVID-19 as the great equalizer because viruses don’t discriminate. But while viruses don’t discriminate, people and policies can and do. The cost of this outbreak has been disproportionately borne by communities of color. Black and brown workers make up the majority of essential personnel and are more likely to be locked into expensive, unstable housing thanks to exclusionary rental and lending practices. This has left a significant percentage of the country unable to shelter in place, forced to continue working and risking infection and transmission. Melissa Jones, Executive Director of the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII), will discuss what rolling recovery means for these workers--and how policies and systems can create protection factors for their health.

Learning Objectives

  • Examine the BARHII Regional Response and Rolling Recovery Plan, which combines public health equity infrastructure and policies to protect the social determinants of health
  • Discuss the Bay Area model of regional response, which focuses on building momentum with early wins and targeted investment in communities with less infrastructure
  • Identify strategies to be led by communities most impacted throughout the rolling pandemic

Duration: 18 minutes

Continuing Education Information: 0.5 CECH for CHES

Format: Web-based training, Self Study

Originally Recorded: 08/2020

Presenter: Melissa Jones, MPA

Melissa Jones is the Executive Director of the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative (BARHII). She is passionate about creating conditions that increase the quality of life and makes life fairer for more people. Her work focuses on the intersection of social determinants of health, social inequity, and well-being. Her experience includes work in municipal government and non-profits in the Bay Area’s large and small cities. Melissa is an active community member in Oakland and also serves on the Association of Bay Area Government’s Regional Planning Committee, which advices on regional planning issues. Before joining BARHII, Melissa served as Senior Program Officer at Boston Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC), where she launched and ran Boston LISC’s Resilient Communities Resilient Families (RCRF) Initiative. Melissa has additional experience funding and implementing programs focused on community economic development, family financial stability, education, and civic empowerment. Specifically, she has served in youth empowerment organizations, as Program Specialist for the City of Alameda, and as Program Analyst for the City of Oakland’s Oakland Fund for Children and Youth. Early in her career, she served as Director of Professional Development for Partners in School Innovation, where she trained staff to support school reform efforts in SanFrancisco Unified, San Jose Unified, and Oak Grove Unified school districts.


Advancing Equity During COVID-19: Lessons and Opportunities

We are seeing dramatic inequities in COVID-19 impacts, with people of color being severely and disproportionately affected. The virus starkly laid bare racial inequities facing this nation which are deeply rooted in structural racism and historic disinvestment. The tragic and unjust deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery catalyzed a broader awareness and awakening of what many of us in the public health field already knew: racism is a public health crisis. How can these confluent, historic events advance equity during the COVID-19 response and beyond? Review this presentation by Tracy Delaney, founding director of the Public Health Alliance of Southern California, to explore real-time learnings and opportunities for Public Health practice to advance equity in this unprecedented moment.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify key data indicators to support an equitable COVID-19 response and recovery.
  • Describe public health practices that positioned local health departments to successfully engage with communities most impacted by disproportionate COVID-19 outcomes.
  • Identify at least 3 strategies to elevate and begin to address racism as a public health crisis

Target Audience: Public Health Professionals 

Duration: 26 minutes

Continuing Education Information: 0.5 CECH for CHES 

Format: Web-based training, Self Study

Originally Recorded: 08/2020

Presenter: Tracy Delaney, PhD

Tracy Delaney is the founding director of the Public Health Alliance of Southern California (Alliance) -a regional coalition of eight local health departments whose members have statutory responsibility for the health of 50% of California’s population. Her work advances equity and population health through multi-sector initiatives addressing policy, systems, and environmental change. She has spearheaded multidisciplinary projects integrating land use and transportation, food systems, climate and water resources, and public health and hospital systems. Under Dr. Delaney’s direction, the Alliance has developed the California Healthy Places Index, a positively framed community condition tool that is associated with life expectancy at birth at granular geographies. During her previous tenure at the County of San Diego, she was Principal Investigator for Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Communities Putting Prevention to Work grant, the nation’s largest federal obesity prevention award, and the CDC’s Community Transformation Grant. She holds a doctorate in Nutrition from the University of California, Davis. Dr. Delaney was honored with the Leadership Award by the Southern California Public Health Association.

Addressing Systemic Racism: A Place-based Approach to Building Healthy Communities

In this presentation, Renae Badruzzaman will describe place-based interventions that bring in community development as a key partner to address social determinants of health; explore moving further upstream to systemic, institutional, and structural change; and demonstrate how the public health workforce can adapt to address systemic racism and health inequities.

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe place-based interventions that bring in community development as a key partner to address social determinants of health.
  • Explore moving further upstream to systemic, institutional, and structural change. 
  • Demonstrate how the public health workforce can adapt to address systemic racism and health inequities.
Target Audience:  Public Health Professionals 

Duration:  ~ 26 minutes

Continuing Education Information:  0.5 CECH for CHES

Disclosures:  There are no conflicts of interest to report.

Format:  Web-based Training, Self-Study

Created/Updated:  08/2020

Author(s)/ Presenter(s):  Renae A. Badruzzaman, MPH

Renae Badruzzaman is Program Manager at Build Healthy Places Network where she operationalizes and implements the Network’s place-based strategy. Renae brings a decade of experience working in multidisciplinary and cross-sector collaborations to advance health equity, inclusion, and justice for people of color and communities with low-income. Prior to joining the Network, Renae served as the Program Manager for Health Equity Investments at the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative. She played a key role in the strategic development and policy advocacy of an anchor mission strategy for local public health departments. While in Chicago, Renae directed a center that promoted a socially just and self-determined system of long-term services and supports and managed a federally-funded leadership program focused on children with special health care needs. She received an MPH from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Community Health Sciences and a BA in Psychology.

Preparing and Submitting an Abstract

Abstracts serve several purposes in academia: summarization, description, sorting, and indexing. Abstracts are designed to highlight key points and sufficient details to classify whether the information is relevant to a readers’ clinical or research interests. The focus of this training is to describe two types of abstracts in public health, abstract composition, and lean writing. It will also review the use of the 4Cs rule and the concept of critical thinking to improve abstract composition skills.

We recommend checking out the training module on "Identifying a Research Question" and "Composing a Scientific Paper" before taking this course.

Learning Objectives:

  • Identify the appropriate abstract type for your work.  
  • Define the purpose of an abstract.
  • Describe appropriate language for writing an abstract.
  • Identify the appropriate content to include in an abstract

Target Audience:  Public health professionals and Students

Duration: 30 minutes 

Continuing Education Information:  0.5 Category 1 CHES Credits, 0.5 Continuing Competency

Disclosures:  The planners, reviewers, and authors have no declared conflicts of interest

Format: Web-based Training, Self-Study

Author: Douglas Taren, Ph.D.; Professor of Public Health  

Dr. Taren Dr. Taren is Editor-in-Chief for Nutrition Reviews, who works with a team that reviews cutting edge research for its readers, including nutrition scientists, biomedical researchers, clinical and dietetic practitioners, decision-makers, and advanced students of nutrition. Dr. Taren is a retired Deputy Director of the MPH program at the University of Arizona and has served as the Associate Dean for Academy Affairs. He has received several extramural grants (R25, USAID, and HRSA) to create and evaluate training programs and to fund public health projects. One of the factors that have brought together Dr. Taren’s research and public health interests together is creating the training programs for graduate students and the public health workforce that translate science to public health practice.

Arranged by: Dipanwita Das, M.Sc., M.A., ID, OD

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